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Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 10
Product Reviews

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 10 Aura Edition review: I tested this convertible business laptop and the pros far outweigh the cons

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The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 10 Aura Edition is a convertible two-in-one laptop well-suited to both business and creative tasks.

It’s a highly portable machine, measuring 0.31 in – 0.64 in x 12.31 in x 8.57in and with a starting weight of 2.97lb (1.35kg). As I’d expect from a true ThinkPad – even a 2-in-1 model – it’s robustly built and ideal for home and office working.

As an Aura Edition laptop, it’s an AI PC running on an Intel Core Ultra chip which, according to Lenovo “accelerates your AI experience” without being a drag on the battery. Whether that’s a plus or a minus in your book will vary. In my experience it was…fine. But I’m not the world’s biggest AI user anyway.

But as a self-confessed ThinkPad fan, I was excited to check out the overall feel and performance.

  • Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 (Gen 10) Aura Edition (14-inch 512GB) at Amazon for $1,759.99

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 10 Aura Edition: Price & availability

Prices for the laptop start from $1892 / £1820 (currently discounted from £2250 at time of review).

At that price, the US version of the machine comes loaded with Windows 11 Home running on the Intel Core Ultra 5 226V, 16GB RAM, and 512GB M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 SSD.

In the UK, the base model runs W11 Home on the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V chip, 32GB RAM, and 512GB M.2 2280 PCIe Gen5 SSD.

You can also spec-up the machine with up to an Intel Core Ultra 7 268V vPro processor, 2TB SSD, and Windows 11 Pro operating system.

Either way, the base model 14in IPS touchscreen display panel has a resolution of 1920 x 1200, with Anti-Glare. It hits 100% sRGB, has a brightness of 500 nits, and a 60Hz refresh rate.

There are two other screen options, too – either the business-oriented display with its ePrivacy filter, which is otherwise identical to the base model. Or the more complex 2.8K OLED Low Blue Light display with HDR 500 True Black with 100% DCI-P3, 500 nits, VRR 30-120Hz, making it the better pick for creators.

The ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 10 Aura Edition is available from Lenovo US and Lenovo UK, as well as online retailers.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 10 Aura Edition: Design & features

(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future)

Specs

As reviewed:

CPU: Intel Core Ultra 7 258V
RAM: 32GB
GPU: Integrated Intel Arc 140V GPU (16GB)
Storage: 1TB
Display: 14in OLED
Brightness: 500 nits
Refresh rate: 30-120Hz
Color gamut: 100% DCI-P3
Ports & connectivity: 2x USB-A, 2x USB-C Thunderbolt 4, 1x Nano SIM, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x audio jack, 1x Kensington Nano Security slot, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi 7
Operating system: Windows 11 Pro

The look and feel of the X1 2-in-1 is distinctly ThinkPad – I found it robust in hand thanks to its aluminum chassis, which boasts MIL-STD-810H construction. Not exactly a true rugged laptop, then, but durable enough for the most hardened commuters. Besides the silvery accents, the main body is a stylish space grey that I thought looked professional without being boring.

The 14in screen has a thin bezel that sits behind the glass, with an elevated notch where the camera sits. The camera itself is 5MP, comes complete with physical privacy shutter, and supports Windows Hello for a passwordless sign-in.

Along the right-hand side is a USB-A and two USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports, and a Nano SIM slot. To the left, there’s another USB-A port, as well as HDMI 2.1 port, audio jack, a Kensington Nano Security slot, and a discrete power button that sits flush with the frame. In a world where laptop makers are gradually stripping back connectivity, I find this array generous enough, and I didn’t feel the immediate need to hook up a laptop docking station. Another bonus here is the support for Wi-Fi 7, perfect for future-proofing connectivity.

Now, I’m a big champion of ThinkPad laptops (I use the T14s on a daily basis, but I’ve been a fan since I first got my trusty old T431s). In my experience, they easily offer the best typing experience compared to other laptop brands. Alright, the new Lenovo models may lack the key travel of the older IBM ThinkPads (1.5mm vs 1.8mm), but even still, they’re a joy to use.

In this regard, I was a little wary of trying out X1 2-in-1 Gen 10, as some older X1 laptops had previously used a keyboard with a stubby 1.35mm travel depth. Lenovo has, thankfully, done away with that – here, you get the same 1.5mm backlit board you’ll find on the T-series ThinkPads. As such, using this for long writing sessions is a total breeze.

However, I spotted a few differences here compared to your more traditional business laptops. Of course, there’s the iconic red Trackpoint, but there’s also a fingerprint scanner for signing in without a password and beside it, a dedicated Microsoft Copilot button – clicking this unlocks the AI assistant, while granting easy access to all the usual Office apps.

Interestingly, Lenovo has switched the Fn and Ctrl keys around here, bringing it in line with most keyboards. Older ThinkPads place the Fn key to the left, rather than the right, and I have to change this using the Lenovo Vantage app.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 10 Aura Edition: Display

(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future)

My review model featured an OLED screen at 2880 x 1800 resolution with 60-120Hz refresh rate. Colors are vivid and bright, near-perfect in reproduction due to the 100% DCI-P3 gamut. For those looking for a general laptop for photo editing as well as productivity tasks, this is a pretty safe bet, I found.

The laptop operates in four ways – laptop, tablet, tent, and presentation mode, and all four work very well. I experienced no issues here at all, with the screen orientation changing swiftly and without lag when I switched from one configuration to the next. The movement feels sturdy and smooth, and pleasingly there’s no additional play to the 360-degree hinges.

What I didn’t like, however, was how reflective the screen was. Turn off the laptop and it’s like staring into a black mirror. That might not be a deal-breaker for some, but it certainly gave me pause and if you’re going to be using this outside or in direct sunlight, you’ll want to crank up the brightness to mitigate it as much as possible.

As a touchscreen device, this unit also included a stylus, which magnetically clamps to the right side of the screen. Using this in tablet mode was a total joy. Input was instant and the whole experience felt smooth.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 10 Aura Edition: Performance

(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future)

I experienced no issues when using the laptop – running Microsoft’s Office suite, browsing the internet, opening many, many, many, many tabs in Chrome, at this level, nothing seemed to slow down this machine.

Under heavier workloads, there is a tendency for the X1 to run a little warm, and there, I did experience some minor slowing. But even, the impact felt negligible and it’s unlikely to prove an issue for professionals using this for general business tasks.

For a convertible business laptop, then, I found it well-specced and impressively powerful enough for day-to-day operations. Ok, it won’t deliver the same performance you’ll find from a mobile workstation or gaming laptop, but that’s not what it’s been designed for.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 10 Aura Edition: Battery life

One of the stand-out areas with the X1 2-in-1 Gen 10 Aura Edition is the battery life. The machine is rocking a 57Whr battery, which is hardly massive, but acceptable. Don’t let that fool you, though, because battery life is surprisingly spectacular.

The device itself is rated for up to 20.2 hours when benchmarked using MobileMark 25, according to Lenovo. But this assumes minimal use. Streaming video playback should net up to 16.3 hours. For those using this laptop on the go, it’s positively perfect.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 10 Aura Edition: Final verdict

Image 1 of 2

(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future)(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future)

Overall, I enjoyed my time with the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 10 Aura Edition – whether I was using it as a tablet or laptop.

It’s more than capable of handling the usual suite of business apps and software, and here, the laptop performs brilliantly. Everything feels smooth, responsive, and efficient, making it a good pick for those who prize productivity above all else.

True, it’s not the most powerful around, it’s expensive for what it is, and I’m still not a fan of the glossy screen, but all told, there’s little else to complain about.

Couple that durable design with a good port selection, excellent battery life, and a neat, multi-use design, and you have one of the best 2-in-1 laptops for professionals around.

Should I buy the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 10 Aura Edition?

(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future)Swipe to scroll horizontally

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Design

Convertible, durable, and distinctly ThinkPad in style

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Performance

Perfect for office duties as well as lighter weight creative tasks

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Price

A steeper cost than I’d like, but par for the course with a business laptop

⭐⭐⭐⭐

For more productivity performance, we tested the best business computers and the best business tablets.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 (Gen 10) Aura Edition: Price Comparison



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The Thrustmaster T248R set up.
Product Reviews

Thrustmaster T248R wheel review: an updated model that puts pressure on the mighty Logitech G923

by admin



Why you can trust TechRadar


We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

Thrustmaster T248R: One-minute review

It’s not a new racing wheel you’re looking at here, but instead a revamped and thoughtfully tweaked 2025 edition of the existing Thrustmaster T248. The youthful maverick that is the T248R features many small but noticeable improvements, including a visual facelift, upgraded gear shift paddles, and a sharper digital display that offers genuinely useful readouts.

As for the tech powering your driving sensation, that’s a double-edged sword. On one hand, it’s a downside that the T.HD wheelbase is built on a hybrid of gear and belt-driven feedback, which can’t compete with direct drive for smooth, fast, precise feedback.

And with the price of direct drive bundles tumbling down lately into price points not that much more than the price of this bundle, that’s definitely a major consideration for anyone hovering over the ‘add to cart’ button.

(Image credit: Future)

On the other hand, nobody does belt-driven feedback quite like Thrustmaster, so the driving sensation you actually get out of this wheel in your hands isn’t anything as old-fashioned as you might imagine.

It’s plenty powerful for the entry-level sim racer it’s designed for, outputting a peak 3.1Nm of torque, and there’s some subtlety to the feedback too, which doesn’t produce a detrimental amount of cogging (that grindy, stuttering feeling associated with older belt-driven feedback).

Down at your feet, the pedal base is everything you could ask for at this price. It stays where you put it, even on a carpeted floor; the three pedals are well-spaced apart from each other, and the brake has a satisfying amount of stamping force thanks to its stiff load cell.

It’s a wheel to be recommended, ultimately, but it’s a qualified recommendation. If the cheapest direct drive wheels like the Nacon Revosim or the Thrustmaster T598 are out of budget, or you simply don’t race enough to justify the extra outlay for the improved sensation, this bundle makes a lot of sense.

That’s even factoring in the great Logitech G923, a true titan of non-direct drive wheels at the sub-$300 mark. Logi’s wheel offers slightly better build quality, and its TrueForce feedback offers impressive detail, but those are marginal gains over this dependable and well-priced T248R.

(Image credit: Future)

Thrustmaster T248R: Price and availability

  • List price: $349.99 / £249.99 (around AU$512)
  • Priced cheaper than outbound T248 and Logitech’s G923
  • It may be old tech, but it still offers great bang for buck

Price is a vital bit of context here. It’s true that direct drive (DD) is becoming much more affordable, with bundles like Nacon’s Revosim and the fantastic T598 from Thrustmaster’s own stable bringing high-quality DD sensation to the masses at a price point below $500. But this T248R’s pricing is so far below that $500 threshold that a belt and gear-driven bundle is still a worthwhile consideration.

That does mean the looks and finish quality do feature some obvious compromises compared to the G923. But with a crystal-clear digital display, nice tactile buttons, quiet shifters, and a high-quality set of pedals, there’s real value here. The build quality and driving experience are more than enough for casual racers and even more committed enthusiasts on a budget.

Thrustmaster T248R: Specs

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Weight

12.6lb / 5.7kg

Peak torque

3.1Nm

Features

Digital display, load cell brake pedal, magnetic shifters, cushioned pleather wheel finish

Connection type

USB-A

Compatibility

PC, PS4, PS5

Software

My Thrustmaster

Thrustmaster T248R: Design and features

  • Well built, if a little plasticky
  • Pleather wheel feels great
  • Useful display

Thrustmaster has been making the T248 in its various iterations for long enough to know that its audience isn’t likely to be attaching it to a sim rig, so it’s sensibly built both the wheel and pedals to be used comfortably at a desktop. The pedal base is heavy and grippy, which is absolutely crucial for an enjoyable drive.

The last thing you want when you’re stamping on a load cell brake at 180mph in Assetto Corsa Competizione is to feel the whole base shift position or rotate, and happily, there’s next to none of that with this bundle, despite a relatively stiff load cell on the brake. The aluminium contact points on the pedals are a nice touch at this price, too.

Working our way up, the wheelbase and wheel itself show a few more concessions to the affordable price point. Primarily, all the plastic. Although it’s a definite upgrade versus the outgoing T248 (which will still be on sale in Xbox config, as this new T248R supports PC, PS4, and PS5 only, so is targeting the best PS5 racing wheel market), there is still a lot of quite light, flimsy plastic used on the face, inner wheel, and hub.

Thrustmaster’s done its best to disguise some of this with a carbon fiber-style weave effect, but realistically, it’s fooling no one. Personally, for this price, I can live with it, but it’s worth noting that the slightly pricier G923 does look and feel more substantial and somehow, well, more pro.

Buttons are laid out sensibly around the centre, and at the top there’s a digital display with a sharper resolution now, which can give you some really useful readouts and telemetry – a definite perk for the price.

The biggest weakness in the T248’s overall design comes in the desktop clamp. There’s no major issue here – it does its job in keeping the wheel fixed in position on your desk, but now with the same rigidity or assuredness as the G923, whose two tightening screws at either side of the wheelbase lock it tightly in position. Here, there’s just one central screw, and while it does keep out of the way of your legs, it’s not as secure a contact point as Logitech’s.

(Image credit: Future)

Thrustmaster T248R: Performance

  • Plenty of power
  • A pleasing sensation considering the older tech
  • Buttons, shifters, and pedals all feel great while driving

How does it feel to drive a lap with this updated model?

Well, firstly, it’s pretty straightforward to get onto the track in the first place, since most games recognise this as either the older T248 or the TGT wheel. That means you’ve got default assignments for inputs across the wheel, and pretty good axis and force feedback values from the off. Every title I tried with this new model was recognised enough that all my mappings were done for me, and I didn’t need to calibrate the wheel axis by axis.

On the track, Thrustmaster’s unique hybrid of belt and gear-driven force feedback shows its merits. It does feel very different to direct drive – it’s nowhere near as smooth to rotate the wheel, for starters. But it’s also not coggy or rough in the way that older traditional belt-driven models (remember the MOMO Force?) used to be.

Instead, you’ve got a happy medium between smooth wheel actuation and rumbly feedback that feels about right for the price point. Does it offer the same variety of feedback types as Logitech’s TrueForce-enabled G29? It does not.

The Logi wheel conveys tarmac rumble a little better and gives a more convincing sense of weight to the vehicle you’re driving, but that doesn’t really have a meaningful effect on lap times.

(Image credit: Future)

I noticed how well built the input buttons feel as I was driving, too. It’s common for the face buttons – translated from a traditional console controller and arranged around the wheel – to feel loose and flimsy on a lower-end wheel, but here they feel higher quality. You’re always sure that a button input was registered properly.

It’s a small tweak, but the magnetic paddle shifters have been lavished with some redesign attention to produce a smoother, quieter shift. I’d say more than that, it just feels nicer than it did to change gears on the older T248.

Speaking of, previously the digital display was monochrome and had a limited viewing angle, but it’s much sharper now and thus much more useful. You don’t have a dynamic rev counter, but you do have an RPM light that lets you know when it’s time to upshift. While on the main display, you might have your current lap deltas.

I’m a particular fan of the pedals, and they contribute a lot to the quality of the driving experience in this bundle. It’s great to have a load cell brake that can be adjusted for stiffness by swapping elastomers and springs in, and equally great to feel so planted when you exert a pedal input.

(Image credit: Future)

Should I buy the Thrustmaster T248R?

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

Also consider

If the Thrustmaster T248R doesn’t hit your apex, try these similarly priced rivals.

Swipe to scroll horizontallyRow 0 – Cell 0

Thrustmaster T248R

Logitech G923

Hori Apex

Price

$349.99 / £249.99 (around AU$512)

$299.99 / £299.99

$119.99 / £99.99

Weight

12.6lb / 5.7kg

4.96lbs / 2.3kg

3.09lbs / 1.4kg

Peak torque

3.1Nm

2.2Nm

N/A

Features

Digital display, load cell brake pedal, magnetic shifters, cushioned pleather wheel finish

TrueForce feedback, dial controls, rev display

Textured wheel grip, simple setup

Connection type

USB-A

USB-A

USB-A

Compatibility

PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5

PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, PC, or Xbox Series X/S, PC

PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC

(Image credit: Future)

How I tested the Thrustmaster T248R

  • Tested in F1 24, F1 25, Rennsport, ACC, and AC Evo
  • Two weeks with a desktop
  • A variety of FF strength settings tried

I loaded up my usual racing titles to test this updated T248R wheel, since I’m already familiar with how they feel with a variety of both belt-driven and direct drive wheels.

Happily, every title recognised the wheel to some degree and offered sensible default mappings and values.

There’s a range of different force feedback strength levels available here via Thrustmaster’s ‘BOOST’ tech, although in practice, that’s no different from adjusting the strength of any other wheel via the in-game settings or manufacturer app. Nevertheless, I adjusted to different strengths during testing.

Finally, and importantly, all testing was conducted at a desktop setup, since this bundle can’t easily be mounted onto a sim rig like my Playseat.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed September 2025

Thrustmaster T248R: Price Comparison



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Dying Light: The Beast Review - A Deadly Return to Form
Game Reviews

Dying Light: The Beast Review – A Deadly Return to Form

by admin


Post-apocalyptic parkour is the name of the game in Techland’s Dying Light series. With two mainline entries to its name, the series capitalizes on the zombie genre, even if it can fall into some tired tropes and clichés. Still, the iconic nighttime chases, gory combat, and realistic tone have made it more than just a survivor horror franchise. Dying Light: The Beast serves as the developer’s third entry in the series, and, fortunately, it’s as effective as a zombie bite: quick, efficient, and leaves a mark.

Returning as Kyle Crane, the protagonist of the first Dying Light, you embark on a vengeful quest against The Baron, who experimented on him for 13 years. The series’ narrative track record has left plenty to be desired thus far, and, while The Beast is an improvement, it still falls short of its undead contemporaries. The stakes play it safe, and it struggles to maintain the realism the story is aiming for, despite the zombies.

This time around, Crane is a more personable character than in his debut outing. Instead of the rookie from Dying Light, we get a weathered and slightly more capable version in The Beast. Furthermore, his personality shines, and he carves out a more distinct identity within the genre. Helping out with that is voice actor Roger Craig Smith, who delivers a well-rounded performance, balancing his sarcasm with charm.

 

It’s important to note that The Beast does assume you’ve played past titles and doesn’t do much to catch you up, both in story and gameplay. It may prove challenging for newcomers, but once you get the hang of things, like Crane in his new environment, it becomes like clockwork. Past features, such as safe houses and Dark Zones, return and still reach the heights of their predecessors, especially during the intense night segments.

The city of Castor Woods, filled with foliage and Swiss Alps-inspired architecture, isn’t as parkour-forward as Dying Light 2 Stay Human’s Villedor, but it still captures the thrill of traversal quite well, especially in the townscapes. Dying Light is a beacon for free-running, and The Beast does an excellent job of capturing the feeling of the unreal adrenaline high with your life on the line. Jumping from rooftop to rooftop and finding safe houses in the dark before the supercharged zombies catch up to you is exhilarating. Techland has nailed the aspect of maps being essentially large playgrounds for Crane to slaughter zombies and freestyle his way around. Unfortunately, story missions do it a disservice, as you end up going back and forth to the same places repeatedly; getting there ends up being the fun part.

While Dying Light 2 improved upon Dying Light’s combat, The Beast combines both to make one of the most responsive systems in the series. You can feel each swing of a weapon and every shot of a gun like it is actually in your hands. Even more so, you’re never at an advantage against foes, fitting for an apocalyptic setting. The new Beast mode, which makes Crane a hulking powerhouse, does help thin crowds and score some gory kills. Its addition adds more variety to combat and traversal, and I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t fun to just wreck house from time to time.

 

One of the highlights of Dying Light: The Beast, aside from stellar parkour, is how good it looks in action. The series has always delivered impressive visuals, and that’s only become truer as technology and fidelity have improved over the last decade. The autumnal Castor Woods sometimes lack color, but it feels ripped straight from a photograph. Characters, zombies, and gore are rendered with precision, showcasing some of Techland’s best-looking work.

Dying Light: The Beast can feel a touch safe at times with a serviceable story, but the high-flying parkour and gorgeous graphics are top-notch. Castor Woods makes for the perfect zombie-slaying playground for you to enjoy. It’s pure adrenaline packed into its 20 hours, continuing to carve out its own corner of the crowded zombie space.



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Chris Tilly
Esports

Find Your Friends review: Female relations take center stage in unsettling survival horror

by admin



Find Your Friends is a survival horror that pits female hedonism against toxic masculinity, before exploding in violent scenes that ask complicated questions of its characters, and the audience.

The feature debut of writer-director Izabel Pakzad, Find Your Friends is like a mash-up of indie darlings Spring Breakers and How to Have Sex, that transforms into a combo of horror classics Deliverance and Revenge.

And while it doesn’t quite reach the dizzy heights of those influences, the movie nevertheless tackles some heavy themes, to do with peer pressure, personal responsibility, and messy female friendship.

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It also features an exciting young cast, playing characters that are more real and three-dimensional than the female folk usually found in this kind of fare.

What is Find Your Friends about?

Welcome to Italy

Find Your Friends revolves around a group of girlfriends vacationing together, and determined to have as much fun as is legally possible, while also sometimes indulging in the illegal.

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Proceedings commence at a yacht party, where the group is dancing, flirting, drinking, discussing dicks, smoking weed, and snorting coke. Making these early scenes feel like an episode of Girls Gone Wild.

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Amber (the superb Helena Howard) isn’t having as good a time as her friends however, as her ex has shown up with a new woman. So she goes extra hard, then somewhat dazed and confused, finds herself below deck with a guy who won’t take no for an answer.

That assault fundamentally – and understandably – changes Amber for the rest of the movie, for while she doesn’t initially tell her friends what has happened, she nevertheless blames them for leaving her alone with such a predator. While she’s also clearly suffering PTSD from the assault.

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For those reasons, the friendship group – which includes modern-day scream queen Bella Thorne – starts to subtly fracture, but they nevertheless plough on with the party, heading to the desert for an EDM gig where more drink and drugs are consumed, and a creepy trio of guys spoil their vibe.

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Amber senses danger, and when her gang doesn’t feel the same, storms off on her own. Which is when Amber’s holiday goes from bad to worse, and Find Your Friends shifts from dark drama to tense survival horror.

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Toxic men and toxic friends

Though while the threat that she – and eventually the rest of the group – is forced to confront turns terrifying, it’s also pretty predictable, and something horror fans have seen in countless similar films.

But what elevates Pazkard’s script is that it isn’t really concerned with awful men doing terrible things, as that’s almost a given in this world. Rather it focuses on decisions our protagonists make that put them in those dangerous situations, then how they react when the trouble starts.

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Because when Amber finally speaks her truth, there’s a disturbing lack of concern, empathy, or support from her nearest and dearest, which is maybe understandable based on her erratic behavior, but also deeply upsetting when we know the pain that she’s in. 

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It’s uncomfortable and upsetting to watch, but also not much of a surprise, as our heroes are girls who are loud, rude, and vulgar, which makes them quite a boring hang. But based on this evidence, they’re simply a product of their environment, surrounded by frat culture and guys who are trying to get them drunk, and high, and into bed.

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So while Find Your Friends works as a perfectly functional horror movie when the survival stuff starts, it’s arguably more interesting before the horror kicks in.

Is Find Your Friends good?

From minute one, Find Your Friends is an assault on the senses, with hand-held style camerawork putting us in the midst of the girls’ hedonistic ways.

Montages of them dancing to electro and talking about sex get a bit repetitive, but they’re in service to a story about what the world expects of these women, versus what they expect of each other and themselves.

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All of which leads to an uncompromising examination of female group dynamics, followed by a more straightforward battle of the sexes.

Find Your Friends score: 3/5

When it’s not leaning into well-worn survival horror tropes, Find Your Friends is a thought-provoking directorial debut from Isabel Pakzad, about how society treats young women, as well as the complicated ways in which they treat each other.

Find Your Friends was reviewed at Fantastic Fest, while the film’s release date is TBD. For more scary stuff, check out our list of the best horror movies ever.

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Jamal Musiala and Jude Bellingham in EA Sports FC 26
Product Reviews

EA Sports FC 26 review: a football sim for all seasons

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Why you can trust TechRadar


We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

Review info

Platform reviewed: PS5
Available on: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
Release date: Early Access: September 19, 2025 | Full release: September 26, 2025

Developer and publisher EA’s marquee sports franchise is in a strangely privileged position. For years, FIFA fans lambasted the developer for wheeling out what seemed like the same game in a fresh lick of paint, and while the newer EA Sports FC titles haven’t exactly rewritten the FIFA rulebook, they have felt like more complete, harder-to-criticize packages overall.

Why? Because a decade’s worth of minor tweaks is bound to add up to something great. As I wrote in my EA Sports FC 25 review this time last year, “it feels like we’ve reached a point where the overall FC experience is so good that it’s hard to chastise EA for making small improvements to an already excellent foundation,” and the latest entry in this long-running series, EA Sports FC 26, is shielded by the same safety blanket.

FC 26 is not a dramatically different offering from what’s come before, but it is an objectively better game than FC 25 in a few key ways.

There’s a brand new gameplay option for slower, more realism-focused offline play, a clever real-world integration for Career Mode, and meaningful player-requested changes for Ultimate Team (FUT) and Clubs. The graphics have never been better, and, of course, there’s the customary thrill of using up-to-date players, in up-to-date kits, at up-to-date clubs.

None of these upgrades are particularly flashy; they’re more under-the-surface than something you can advertise in a TV spot. But (I promise!) they do bring new, unexpected depth to EA’s tried-and-tested modes – particularly Career Mode, which feels closer to Football Manager than it’s ever been (complimentary).

Keeping it real

Cole Palmer in EA Sports FC 26 (Image credit: EA Sports)

If you pressed EA to tell you this year’s single biggest FC upgrade, it would probably say “the overhauled gameplay experience powered by feedback from the FC Community.” That sounds like marketing mumbo jumbo, but FC 26 genuinely does play better than FC 25 for a number of reasons.

There are fewer bounce-backs this year (read: matches feel less like a game of pinball), dribbling is more responsive, it’s easier to change direction, goalkeepers no longer parry the ball straight into your opponent’s lap (or rather, they do so less frequently), and, mercifully, headers are now scorable again.

These were the five most tangible gameplay improvements I noticed during my short time with FC 26 ahead of launch, though EA also says that tackles are cleaner, interceptions are more controlled, passes are quicker, and skills are easier to perform.

Some of the best players in EA Sports FC 26 (Image credit: EA Sports)

Players with high dribbling stats definitely feel more powerful in FC 26. The likes of Lamine Yamal, Cole Palmer, and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia are now just as fun to play with as they are to watch in real life, and while pace freaks like Kylian Mbappé and Vinícius Júnior will undoubtedly remain the weapon of choice for FUT loyalists, it’s nice that more of the world’s best players feel genuinely threatening in-game. There’s a new Gamechanger PlayStyle for flair finishers like Yamal, too, which feels like a cheat code when paired with existing dribble-focused PlayStyles like Technical+.

EA has also rolled a bundle of realism-focused tweaks into an entirely new gameplay preset called Authentic Gameplay. An optional mode in Kick-Off and Career Mode, Authentic is tuned for higher realism and true-to-life match speed; dribbling is slower, tackles are more violent, AI defenders are smarter, and rebounds, blocks, and bounces are more unpredictable. In other words, Authentic is a slower, harder, but (in my experience) more rewarding gameplay experience than Competitive, which is the faster-paced gameplay preset locked to online modes like FUT and Clubs.

Just look – look! – at Marc Cucurella’s in-game hair in EA Sports FC 26 (Image credit: EA Sports / Future)

In Authentic, it’s much easier to keep hold of possession for long spells, and much harder to slip players in behind using L1. It’s also nigh-on impossible to burst away from defenders with pacey players, which – as in real life – encourages you to aim for space (I do expect EA to tweak the latter aspect in the coming weeks, though, as Mbappé should be able to leave Francesco Acerbi for dead, regardless of the game mode).

It’s true that previous FC games (and indeed previous FIFA games) featured a Simulation preset that, in theory, imposed similar realism-focused gameplay changes. But toggling this option always felt like spiking your players with horse tranquilizer. Yes, in FC 26, Authentic Gameplay feels slower than its Competitive counterpart, but it doesn’t throw the whole FC experience out of kilter. I like it a lot.

Board Expectations 2.0

The Manager Live Hub in EA Sports FC 26 (Image credit: EA Sports / Future)

Career Mode is the perfect place to give Authentic Gameplay a spin, and EA has sprinkled some great new features into its decades-old take on Football Manager.

The headline addition is Manager Live, which evolves last year’s Live Start Points mechanic into a series of full-blown, inspired-by-real-life challenges. Manager Live is essentially Manager Career, but you commit to fulfilling certain objectives or storylines in a given number of seasons. The catch? Each challenge imposes a unique set of feature restrictions and operating conditions, meaning it’s harder to cheese your way to victory by buying the best players or never rotating your squad.

For instance, one Manager Live challenge – Winning With Youth – tasks you with finishing at least eighth in any European league while only playing players under the age of 24 and not signing any players under the age of 21. Another – European Royalty – challenges you to win the UEFA Super Cup twice in three years with increased referee strictness and no ability to restart matches. These feats are harder to complete than they sound, and they force you to think more like a real-life manager under similar real-life pressures.

The Icon and Heroes selection in my edition of EA Sports FC 26 (Image credit: EA Sports / Future)

By completing Manager Live challenges, you can earn classic kits and, for the first time, the ability to play with Icon and Hero players in regular Manager Career. I haven’t yet had enough time with FC 26 to complete one of these multi-season challenges, but luckily, my Ultimate Edition version of the game included three Career-ready Icons straight out of the box (you best believe Fernando Torres went straight into my 2025 Chelsea side).

Other neat updates for regular Career Mode include Manager Market and Unexpected Events. The former gives managers their own Manager Profile and Job Security rating, and you can track which coaches are untouchable, under pressure, or seeking new opportunities throughout the season in a dedicated Manager Market menu. Previously, you’d have to hope and pray that your next role of choice would appear in the hard-to-find Vacancies tab, but now, you can track your dream managerial job and react accordingly.

The Manager Market interface in EA Sports FC 26 (Image credit: EA Sports / Future)

Unexpected Events are exactly what they sound like: random scenarios (positive or negative) that test your adaptability as a manager. Events like Abrupt Retirement, Urgent Family Leave, and Budget Malfunction bring new dynamism to long seasons, where previously, you’d only have the odd player injury or contract negotiation to contend with. Again, this is another small-but-welcome change.

No more rage quits?

Live Events are a new addition to Ultimate Team in EA Sports FC 26 (Image credit: EA Sports)

For FUT fans, those aforementioned gameplay tweaks will prove the most meaningful change (the improvements made to goalkeeper parries, in particular, should reduce the number of rage quits considerably). But EA has also reintroduced Tournaments under a new Live Events banner in FC 26, while Gauntlets force you to rotate your FUT squad in every round, encouraging you to build two competition-ready XIs. During my pre-launch testing, I only had one live Live Event available – the Early Access Elimination tournament – but three more were listed as ‘upcoming’ post-launch.

Other changes include the removal of Rivals qualifiers, the addition of a second tier of Weekend League, and – finally! – fairer consequences if your opponent disconnects from a match by any method: yes, you’ll be awarded the win if the score is a draw.

Best bit

(Image credit: EA Sports FC 26)

Hitting my first trivela assist with Lamine Yamal after beating three defenders using the Technical+ playstyle. These types of moments felt harder to pull off in previous games, but FC 26 actively encourages them.

Those Live Events now feature in Clubs, too, as does a new Archetypes system for developing your Pro, which encourages you to pick a specific style of play (Magician, Creator, Engine, and so on) and run with it. You can choose more than one Archetype (once you’ve unlocked more), but each Archetype progresses separately, so you’ll need to play multiple matches with each one to level them up.

Honestly, I’m not too sure about this new system. Previously, you were able to change your Pro build on the fly to suit the needs of any given position, or just to mix things up. In FC 26, you’ll be able to get really good at being one type of player, but then be forced back to square one if you join a squad that necessitates a position change.

I’m intrigued to see how longtime Clubs fans take to this new progression system – though any annoyances might be offset by the long-awaited ability to join multiple clubs in FC 26.

 Should I play EA Sports FC 26?

Ronaldo Nazário in EA Sports FC 26 (Image credit: EA Sports)

 Play it if…

 Don’t play it if…

 Accessibility

The Accessibility menu in EA Sports FC 26 (Image credit: EA Sports / Future)

EA Sports FC 26 offers a comprehensive suite of accessibility options, including settings for subtitles, button remapping, color blindness, and increasing the size of the player indicator. It also introduces a dedicated High Contrast Mode for low-vision and cognitively disabled players. All of these accessibility options can be found in a dedicated Accessibility Settings tab. The game has six difficulty levels – Beginner, Amateur, Semi-Pro, Professional, World Class, Legendary, and Ultimate – and features support for 21 languages.

 How I tested EA Sports FC 26

I played EA Sports FC 26 for five days ahead of its official release. During that time, I had access to all modes and features and was able to compete against real-world players who also had early access to the game (before the start of EA’s Early Access promotion).

I played on PS5, using a standard DualSense controller, on a Samsung QN95A Neo QLED 4K TV. I’ve played every EA Sports football title since FIFA 13, and also reviewed FIFA 22, FIFA 23, EA Sports FC 24, and EA Sports FC 25 for TechRadar Gaming.

First reviewed September 2025.

EA Sports FC 26: Price Comparison



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Front panel of Audio Pro Addon C10 MkII wireless speakers on a white background
Product Reviews

Audio Pro Addon C10 MkII review: WiiM addition fixes the wireless speakers’ only minor issue

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We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

Audio Pro Addon C10 MkII: Two -minute review

Update September 19, 2025: WiiM and Audio Pro have contacted TechRadar to clarify that contrary to the initial September 4 announcement about a big Audio Pro WiiM-powered wireless speaker rollout, Audio Pro’s new range of speakers aside from the C10 you’re reading about here and the new A10 should no longer be described as “powered by WiiM” and instead “powered by LinkPlay”, which is the parent company of WiiM. Audio Pro’s new speaker range does not integrate with the WiiM ecosystem, and does not have direct WiiM support.

The release states: “For further clarity, the only Audio Pro speakers that are powered by WiiM and integrated with the WiiM Home app are the A10 and C10, WiiM Edition speakers, available exclusively via WiiM’s Amazon storefront.”

To explore how WiiM compares to Sonos as a multi-room option, read this guide to the current state of both platforms. The rest of this review remains as written.

The Audio Pro Addon C10 MkII is a predictably good-looking wireless speaker with plenty going for it purely in design terms (as long as you’re OK with monochrome). It’s lost its handle and its Amazon Alexa voice control compared with the original model, but it’s gained a swanky new streaming platform (thanks, WiiM!) which offers an absolute stack of options where music sources and system flexibility are concerned.

Best of all, it’s a fine-sounding speaker that is able to extract an absolute stack of information from a recording and put it into convincing context. It’s punchy when it needs to be, it’s insightful, and it sounds a heck of a lot bigger than it looks. Deft control of the low frequencies, plenty of midrange articulacy and a winning way with dynamic variations all add to its sonic charm. If it was just a little more vibrant and exciting when the music demanded it, the Audio Pro Addon C10 MkII would be absolutely ideal, but it is nevertheless worthy of a place among the best wireless speakers out there.

(Image credit: Future / Simon Lucas)

  • Audio Pro Addon C10 MKII (White) at Amazon for $359.10

Audio Pro Addon C10 MkII review: Price and release date

  • Cost $360 / £259 / AU$699 (approx.)
  • Launched in 2021

When the Audio Pro Addon C10 MkII first launched back in 2021, it cost $450 / £329 / AU$749 (approx.).

Fast-forward to today, and not only has this product become even more compelling thanks to upgrades in its streaming support and smart features, but it’s also routinely available for $360 / £259 / AU$699 (approx.). It looks like rather than becoming outdated, the C10 MkII has matured and evolved…

Audio Pro Addon C10 MkII review: Features

  • 80 watts of power
  • Dual-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2
  • Numerous streaming options

It’s fair to say that Bluetooth 4.2 with SBC and AAC codec compatibility is not the most inspiring specification for a wireless speaker in 2025. But what the Audio Pro Addon C10 MkII lacks in cutting-edge Bluetooth chops, it more than makes up for in its wireless network abilities.

The exemplary control app, which is now bolted to WiiM’s extremely well-regarded streaming platform, allows you to integrate a lot of music streaming services – and I mean a lot: Amazon and Apple Music, Deezer and Spotify, Qobuz and Tidal, QQ Music, iHeart Radio and vTuner, and plenty more besides. The C10 MkII is compatible with Apple AirPlay 2 and Google Chromecast, and the app allows the speaker to be half of a stereo pair or part of a multi-room system without any fuss whatsoever. It’s an extremely flexible device.

Once aboard, digital audio information is processed by a 24bit/96kHz DAC and then is breathed on by 80 watts of Class D amplification. A pair of 19mm tweeters get 20 watts of power each, and in between them there’s a 133mm midrange driver that receives the other 40 watts. This bigger driver is supported by a rear-facing vertical bass reflex port.

(Image credit: Future / Simon Lucas)

Audio Pro Addon C10 MkII review: Sound quality

(Image credit: Future / Simon Lucas)

  • Open, detailed and well-controlled sound
  • Great tonal balance and frequency response
  • Could sound a little more exciting

Yes, by the standards for $350-ish wireless speakers the Audio Pro Addon C10 MkII is quite large. But be assured the sound it creates is plenty larger than the cabinet it’s coming from.

The sort of scale the Audio Pro can invest in a FLAC file of Hookworms’ Negative Space is straightforwardly impressive. It can open the recording out and offer a proper sense of space at the same time, even though the point-source of sound is always obvious. The amount of dynamic headroom that’s available allows the speaker to track the ever-increasing intensity of the recording convincingly, and the control of the lowest frequencies is such that rhythmic expression is confident and naturalistic, too.

And as well as being controlled with real authority, the bottom end – like the rest of the frequency range – is loaded with detail and variation. The C10 MkII is no thumper – it hits good and hard at the low end, but is textured and tonally varied. The same is true at the opposite end, where treble sounds are bright and substantial, with plenty of information available regarding tone, attack and decay. Through the midrange, the Audio Pro is about as explicit and as eloquent as any device of its type and price I’ve heard. It communicates in absolute torrents.

The tonal balance is nicely judged – it’s not absolutely neutral, but the tiny suggestion of warmth (especially towards the bottom end) is almost certainly sensible in the context of the circumstances the C10 MkII will probably be used in. The evenness of the frequency response is splendid, too, giving measured and appropriate weighting to every part of the tonal range, without underplaying or overstating any particular area.

Really, about the only area of mild concern where the sound of this speaker is concerned has little to do with the specifics of performance – it’s more about attitude. For all of its undoubted dynamic potency and ability to paint a full and nicely detailed picture, the Audio Pro is not the most demonstrative listen.

It sounds quite like it looks: sophisticated, understated and in unarguable good taste. This, where audio quality is concerned, can be considered shorthand for ‘slight lack of excitement’. No one is interested in a feral loudspeaker, of course, but at those moments when a recording demands vigor and attack, I get the strong impression the C10 MkII thinks this kind of behavior is a little beneath it.

  • Sound quality score: 4.5 / 5

Audio Pro Addon C10 MkII review: Design

(Image credit: Future / Simon Lucas)

  • 165 x 320 x 185mm (HxWxD)
  • Black, white or gray matte finishes
  • Magnetically attached grille

The Audio Pro Addon C10 MkII is, by the standards of a ‘rectangular box’ wireless speaker, very nicely finished and actually quite elegant in an understated sort of way.

This is just as well – given the 165 x 320 x 185mm (HxWxD) dimensions, it could have very easily ended up looking a bit bulky. As it is, though, the standard of construction and finish, along with the unapologetically monotone options of black, gray or white matte colours, make for a very harmonious look. The magnetically attached grille helps with the clean look, too.

It’s a fairly sizeable proposition on the average desk, though, and the lack of a handle makes transporting its 4.3kg weight rather less easy than it might be. I can’t deny I’ve used the bass reflex port as a handle, but I can’t imagine Audio Pro would recommend it as an option…

Audio Pro Addon C10 MkII review: Usability and setup

(Image credit: Future / Simon Lucas)

  • Great control app, extensive physical controls
  • No voice control
  • Can easily be part of a multi-room set-up

Unlike the previous generation of C10, there’s no Amazon Alexa voice control here – there’s no voice control at all, in fact. You may count this as a negative, you may not, but there’s no denying that your other control options are very nicely realized indeed.

That WiiM-powered control app, as already mentioned, is stable, logical and slick in operation. As well as the ability to integrate a generous number of music streaming services and internet radio providers, it’s also where you can form a stereo pair or establish a multi-room system. There’s bass and treble adjustment, the ability to establish as many as half a dozen presets, input selection, the ability to check for firmware updates and various timer and alarm-clock functions.

The top surface of the cabinet features a selection of controls, too, embedded in a tactile steel plate. Power, volume, playback control and Bluetooth pairing are all available here, and access to the six presets you’ve defined in the control app are also available. There’s also a little LED giving confirmation of the selected input.

  • Usability and setup score: 4.5 / 5

Audio Pro Addon C10 MkII review: Value

(Image credit: Future / Simon Lucas)

  • Excellent standard of finish
  • Versatile streaming platform and app
  • Extras add up to value for money

Consider the standard of build and finish, and then consider the out-and-out sound quality. Take into account the great new WiiM-powered streaming platform and all its possibilities, from forming a true stereo pair to easily creating a multi-room system.

And then look around at what this kind of money can buy you from alternative brands. Yes, the Audio Pro Addon C10 MkII is very good value for money indeed.

Should you buy the Audio Pro Addon C10 MkII?

Swipe to scroll horizontallyAudio Pro Addon C10 MkII score card

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Features

Wi-Fi connectivity, Bluetooth (albeit 4.2 with SBC and AAC codec) and WiiM’s excellent streaming platform.

4.5 / 5

Sound quality

Open, detailed and well-controlled, but could be a little more exciting.

4.5 / 5

Design

Three possible matte finishes, sizeable with carry handle removed, magnetically attached grille.

5 / 5

Usability and setup

Great control app, extensive physical controls, can be part of a multi-room set-up.

4.5 / 5

Value

Not cheap, but extras provide added value to make the expense more than worth it.

4.5 / 5

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

Audio Pro Addon C10 MkII: Also consider

How I tested the Audio Pro Addon C10 MkII

Because the C10 MkII is mains-powered rather than battery-powered, I listened to it exclusively in my home. It’s a bit big for a desktop speaker, but nevertheless I gave it a go – it was much more at home on a shelf in the lounge, though.

I listened to music from Tidal and Qobuz via the excellent control app, of many types and quite a few different file sizes. And I listened both critically and with the Audio Pro functioning simply as a ‘background’ device – and there were never less than thoroughly enjoyable.

  • First reviewed: July 2025

Audio Pro Addon C10 MKII: Price Comparison



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Squarespace
Product Reviews

Squarespace review 2025: What our experts say

by admin



Why you can trust TechRadar


We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

Squarespace is a designer-friendly no-code platform with great aesthetics that consistently ranks among the best website builder platforms on the market. With its sleek templates and comprehensive feature set, Squarespace positions itself as an all-in-one solution for creating stylish and functional websites with minimal effort.

Over the years, Techradar has spent thousands of hours testing 140+ website builders, making our reviewers the leading experts in what makes a platform exceptional. Squarespace stands out to us for its award-winning templates, which can be modified down to the last pixel thanks to a powerful block-based editor.

Wix remains our top pick for the best website builder of 2025, thanks to a slightly higher number of features at a reduced price point. But, Squarespace’s new Blueprint AI and Design Intelligence tools make it a close competitor that gives the former a good run for its money.

    Squarespace subscription options:

  • 12 month plan – $16 per month ($192 total cost)

Squarespace: 2-minute review

Squarespace is a complete website builder, with everything you would expect from one of the best-known names in the industry. This includes a range of stunning website templates, a full AI website builder, ecommerce features including payment gateway integrations, marketing tools, analytics, and the ability to integrate with select 3rd party services.

The platform was originally built to serve the blogging space but is now capable of hosting practically any type of website from ecommerce stores to freelancer portfolios. Despite the platform’s growth, it stays true to its roots by continuing to offer some of the more aesthetically pleasing website templates available.

Squarespace isn’t the cheapest website builder, but it is fairly priced when compared with competitors with similar features, tools, and ease of use. Its entry level plan starts at $16/mo with an annual plan, which is in the same ballpark as Wix ($17/mo) and Hostinger ($11.99/mo). Plus, you can take advantage of a 14-day free trial to test it out, although unlike Wix, it doesn’t offer a forever-free version.

Overall, Squarespace is a safe bet for those looking for an easy to use website builder with all the features most businesses will ever need.

What is Squarespace?

Squarespace is a website builder that helps you create professional websites without coding. It’s like a digital canvas where you can design your online presence. You can use pre-made templates and customize them to fit your vision. Whether you want a blog, portfolio, or online store, Squarespace has all the tools you need.

When you sign up, you can choose from over 180 designer-made templates or use their AI-powered Blueprint tool for a custom design. After that, you can easily add your content, change colors and fonts, and arrange elements with its drag-and-drop editor. Squarespace takes care of technical details like hosting and security, so you don’t have to stress about them.

What’s great about Squarespace for beginners is that everything is in one package. This includes domain registration, cloud hosting, design tools, and a CMS. The all-in-one approach saves you from juggling services from different providers, which can be overwhelming when starting out.

Recent updates

Squarespace 7.1 represents a fundamental shift in the platform’s design philosophy, moving away from fixed template families to a highly flexible design system powered by Fluid Engine. This introduces a grid-based editing system that allows users to drag, drop, and layer content blocks with unprecedented freedom, essentially transforming every website into a custom design canvas with zero template limitations.

Design

The Fluid Engine editor enables independent mobile and desktop layout design, giving users granular control over how their content appears across different devices, a significant improvement from the previous version where mobile layouts were automatically generated.

Squarespace 7.1 introduces Auto Layouts that intelligently present content sets, gallery sections for cohesive image displays, and advanced visual effects like Block Pinning for split-scrolling and Text Highlights for emphasizing selected content.

Content management

We found the new page section functionality particularly impressive, as it allows users to divide content into distinct sections with unique design, layout, and styling options. This is a major improvement from 7.0’s single content area limitation. They also added Saved Sections functionality in May 2025, enabling users to create reusable design components across multiple pages, speeding up the design workflow for both beginners and professionals.

Ecommerce

For ecommerce users, 7.1 delivers substantial improvements in selling capabilities and product management. The platform now supports up to 10,000 products per page (compared to 200 in version 7.0) and 250 variants per product (up from 100), while introducing nested category navigation and optimized mobile scrolling for longer product descriptions. Product waitlists, previously available only on specific templates, are now accessible across all websites.

However, it’s worth noting that Squarespace recently implemented Products V2 with a mandatory migration deadline of August 30, 2025, requiring users with custom code targeting product pages to update their implementations to maintain functionality.

Support

Security and support options have been strengthened through Squarespace’s dedicated security team implementing enhanced technical and organizational measures updated in January 2025. The platform maintains a risk-based security approach with continuous monitoring, red team exercises, and threat modeling for new system developments, ensuring robust protection for both company and customer assets.

Integration capabilities have also evolved, though 7.1 maintains Squarespace’s philosophy of relying primarily on native tools rather than extensive third-party integrations, which some users find limiting compared to competitors but ensures better stability and support.

Partner program

The platform’s recent major update arrived in September 2025 with the launch of Squarespace for Pros, unveiled during Circle Day 2025. This professional-grade experience introduces Finish Layer Design Tools with interactive block animations, customizable transforms (opacity, rotation, offset), and the ability to import external fonts for complete brand consistency.

It also includes integrated practice management for project oversight and client collaboration, plus expanded Circle partner program benefits representing Squarespace’s most significant investment to date in supporting professional designers and agencies. However, you should be aware that upgrading from classic editor sections to Fluid Engine is irreversible and may break custom CSS implementations.

Note: Upgrading to the 7.1 version of Squarespace is entirely optional for now. While new users get introduced to Squarespace 7.1 by default, existing website owners can choose to keep the legacy version of the website builder, along with all its existing features and support.

Features

Squarespace provides a wide range of features for different website needs. (Image credit: Squarespace)

Squarespace has always offered some of the best website templates on the market, making it a firm favourite amongst creatives such as artists and photographers. Anyone looking for a stunning website should seriously consider Squarespace.

Owain Williams, Website Builder Editor

Squarespace provides a wide range of features for different website needs. At the heart of the platform is a powerful drag-and-drop editor with a smart grid system. This helps keep your design elements aligned. You’ll also find over 180 professionally designed templates. These templates are great starting points for creating stunning websites. They feature a modern, minimalist design with plenty of white space and room for photos.

If you want to sell online, Squarespace offers strong ecommerce tools in its Business plans. You can sell physical and digital products, offer subscriptions, and create discounts. It even helps with abandoned cart recovery emails and social media sales. The platform supports various payment methods, such as PayPal, Stripe, and Square, and includes automatic tax calculations. However, these ecommerce features come at a higher price compared to some competitors.

In 2023, Squarespace introduced Blueprint AI, which streamlines website creation. This AI system guides users through five simple steps to create a personalized website. It also generates content with its AI text generator. We found this feature helpful for beginners facing the “blank page” anxiety. Still, the AI-generated templates seem basic compared to Squarespace’s professionally designed options.

The platform has specialized tools like Acuity Scheduling for booking appointments, available for $16 a month. It also offers portfolio collections for showcasing work and various blocks to enhance user experience, like search and archive functions. While Squarespace includes many built-in features, it mainly relies on its own tools. This limits extensive third-party integrations in most areas. Squarespace’s pricing ranges from $16 to $52 per month (billed annually). Although it’s a premium price, the quality of design and features usually justify the investment for users.

Tools

Over the years, Squarespace has stacked on a bunch of different tools and add-ons to make its website builder more lucrative. (Image credit: Squarespace)

Over the years, Squarespace has stacked on a bunch of different tools and add-ons to make its website builder more lucrative. This includes everything from SEO features to help you optimize your content strategy to AI tools for assistive design suggestions.

Blogging

Squarespace is well known for being one of the best blogging sites around. So, if you’re into blogging, you’ll be glad to hear that Squarespace provides a full set of blogging features such as built-in blog pages, a comment section, and content promotion tools. However, if you’re making a blog as a means of making money, Squarespace shouldn’t be your first choice. First off, to get hold of ecommerce features, you’ll have to purchase the “Business” plan or up, and it will set you back $23 per month (if you subscribe for a year) or $36 for one month.

Ecommerce

The Business plan (and up) will also let you integrate a shopping cart into your website with ease, as well as sell physical products, digital downloads, online services, and subscriptions. However, if we take the 3% transaction fee on sales and the plan’s initial price tag into account, this solution doesn’t seem particularly pocket-friendly.

Also, Squarespace isn’t as strong as some of its competitor (like Shopify) when it comes to shipping and payment options – for instance, manual payments isn’t an option and you can’t sell in multiple currencies.

SEO and marketing

Squarespace also offers superb Search Engine Optimization (SEO) features, which will help you get your site in front of your core audience. There are multiple options for social media marketing, email marketing, and custom post designs. Not only are these tools powerful, but they are easy to use – this makes it one of the best small business website builders on the market.

AI tools

Although Squarespace’s AI offering isn’t quite as advanced as some competitors such as Wix and Hostinger, it does offer a host of helpful AI-powered tools that will make creating your website a breeze.

The list starts with the option to use AI to get your initial website set up. If you select this option Squarespace will ask you a few questions such as the name of your site, which sections and pages you want on your website, which colors and fonts you want to use, and then use your answers to build your site.

Like with most AI website builders, the results are a little generic and will need some editing. Luckily, Squarespace also offers some AI tools to help you do this. For example, you can use an AI copywriter to help you complete your site’s written content. A similar tool can be used to create product descriptions, which can be a lifesaver for large online stores.

Finally, Squarespace also offers AI-powered branding and email marketing tools, helping you make the right impression and getting you in front of the right people.

Integrations

Squarespace doesn’t take too kindly to third-party tools – while there’s a decent variety of versatile tools it’s not up to scratch – so, you might feel like you’re stuck with Squarespace’s ecosystem.

Website editor

We should also talk about Squarespace’s up-to-date, drag-and-drop editor called Fluid Engine, a superior version to their old editor. As soon as you add an element or change something on the template you’re using, it will become visible straight away. It also offers a decent level of customization choices, so you can adjust your template to suit your needs and desires.

The only major drawback is that you can’t place elements (such as images or text) wherever you want them to be – you can position them in pre-built places bounded by grid lines. Also, while you’ll be prompted to save your site after each change, you won’t enjoy the convince of the autosave functionality.

Ease of use

Of all the website builders we have tested, Squarespace ranks as one of the easiest to use. (Image credit: Squarespace)

Of all the website builders we have tested, Squarespace ranks as one of the easiest to use. Its drag-and-drop editor balances simplicity and functionality. This makes it great for beginners but still offers depth for experienced users. The clean, minimalist interface removes clutter. It shows only the tools you need, like the option to add a new section, which appears when you hover over an existing section.

Getting started with Squarespace is easy. During onboarding, you answer a few questions about your website’s purpose and goals. This helps the platform tailor its recommendations to your needs. The 14-day free trial lets you explore without rushing into a paid plan. We liked that no credit card is needed to start the trial, allowing risk-free experimentation.

Squarespace emphasizes user experience (UX) principles, evident in how the platform works and the sites it creates. The editor uses a smart grid system to align elements. This helps beginners create visually balanced pages. Real-time previews show how your changes affect your site, making the design process dynamic. However, some users notice lag or unresponsiveness with larger, content-heavy websites.

The platform includes accessibility features through its All in One Accessibility Widget. This makes your website more usable for people with various disabilities, including visual, hearing, motor, and cognitive impairments. Yet while customization is simple, Squarespace has limits. Once you pick a template, you can’t switch to another without rebuilding your site. And some advanced customizations need CSS or JavaScript knowledge, which is only available on higher-tier plans.

Pricing

With Squarespace, you can choose between four all-in-one plans ranging from $16 to $52 per month. (Image credit: Squarespace)Swipe to scroll horizontally

Plan

Monthly cost (paid monthly)

Monthly cost (paid annually)

Personal

$25

$16

Business

$36

$23

Commerce (Basic)

$40

$28

Commerce (Advanced)

$72

$52

The site builder’s price tag is on par with similar all-in-one solutions on the market and it provides plenty of bang for the buck. However, if you only wanted a pocket-friendly site builder without other components of Squarespace, we’re sorry to say you won’t find this here.

If you’re in for an all-in-one solution, you can choose between four plans ranging from $16 to $52 per month, if you opt for an annual billing option, that is. If you choose a one-month-only option, the price will spike significantly.

While Squarespace doesn’t offer a forever-free edition of its site builder, there is a 14-day free trial with all four plans and no credit card details are required. It is also worth mentioning that you can often save on your subscription by using Squarespace promo codes and/or signing up for a longer period of time.

As for payment methods, Squarespace accepts all major credit/debit cards (Visa, Mastercard, and American Express included), JCB, Diners Club (in USD only), and SEPA direct debit (in EUR only). As you already suspect, you can’t pay via PayPal or Bitcoin (BTC).

For a more detailed review the plans available on Squarespace you can read our full Squarespace pricing guide.

Integrations

Squarespace takes a curated approach to integrations, offering built-in connectivity to carefully selected platforms rather than an open marketplace of third-party apps. The platform provides what it calls “Connected Services,” which are seamlessly integrated into the core Squarespace experience.

This includes essential tools for payment processing (Stripe, PayPal, Square), shipping carriers (FedEx, UPS, USPS), social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Vimeo), and marketing services (Google Analytics, Mailchimp, Facebook Pixel). We find that this approach ensures reliable performance and support, though it may feel limiting compared to platforms that offer thousands of third-party integrations.

But for automation enthusiasts, Squarespace also supports Zapier integration, which opens up connectivity to over 1,000 additional 3rd-party apps and services. Through Zapier, users can create automated workflows (called “Zaps”) that trigger when specific events occur on their Squarespace site, such as new form submissions, newsletter signups, or product purchases. Common automation scenarios include adding new form submissions to Google Sheets, creating CRM entries in Salesforce or HubSpot, sending notifications to Slack, or adding contacts to email marketing platforms like ConvertKit.

Finally, Squarespace offers API access for developers looking to build custom integrations, though this requires technical expertise. API key generation is possible through the platform’s developer settings. It uses OAuth 2.0 authentication and provides REST endpoints for managing content, products, orders, and inventory.

Developers can access endpoints for site-level configurations, e-commerce functionality, and content management, enabling custom solutions for businesses with specific integration needs. This is useful for connecting Squarespace to enterprise systems like ERPs, CRMs, or custom fulfillment services that aren’t available through the standard integrations.

Security

Squarespace websites are all kept on secure with SSL certificates, two-factor authentication (2FA), and protection against distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. (Image credit: Squarespace)

Squarespace websites are all kept on secure with SSL certificates, two-factor authentication (2FA), protection against distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, and a login activity panel. While the activity log won’t protect your site by itself, it’ll help you discover if any logins were made from suspicious or unknown devices.

Squarespace’s security staff is monitoring all Squarespace sites round-the-clock for threats and vulnerabilities to make sure your site is properly protected. Still, if you discover a vulnerability, you can report it to the security staff and they’ll conduct their investigation on it.

Customer support

You can seek assistance from Squarespace’s support staff via live chat, email, and X (Twitter). (Image credit: Squarespace)

If you get stuck somewhere during your Squarespace journey, you can seek assistance from their support staff via live chat, email, and X (Twitter). Sadly, phone support isn’t available.

Live chat is available Monday to Friday, 4 AM to 8 PM, ET, and once you contact the staff, someone will get back to you in a matter of minutes. In contrast, email support is available 24/7, but the response time can sometimes be sluggish.

As for self-service, you can visit the Help Center which contains a well-supplied knowledge base, video guides, and an avidly active community forum you can conveniently browse by topics.

Alternatives

As we noted earlier, Wix is an awesome alternative for those who want to build their site on a tight budget or entirely free — it even offers a forever-free edition of its site builder for personal use. Plus, it’s super simple to use, packed with features, and provides automatic backups.

If you’re searching for a cheap yet endlessly customizable site builder, WordPress is the solution of choice. Since it’s an open-sourced software, it has thousands of themes, templates, plugins, how-to guides, and a committed community that can lend you a helping hand. While it’s not as beginner-friendly as Squarespace or Wix, it makes up for it with a fabulous level of flexibility and freedom.

Finally, Shopify is built for ecommerce from the ground up, so if an ecommerce solution is what you’re looking for, it might be the best choice. Squarespace offers all essential ecommerce features, but it’s still better suited for a professional site or a blog.

How we tested Squarespace

To test the Squarespace website builder, we started by setting up an account. We then got hands-on with the tools and features available when building a website on the platform. This included exploring the various available website templates, SEO and marketing tools, and testing the drag-and-drop website editor.

We also reviewed the available plans, comparing their pricing and what they include. Finally, we researched what level of help and support is available to users and how the platform protects users’ websites from security threats.

You can learn more about how we test website builders with our full guide.

Summary

Squarespace is a splendid, simple-to-use site builder with terrific templates and it gets better each time a new version crops up. Hitting high marks in all major areas, Squarespace site builder qualifies as an amazing all-arounder in the market, and it’s also fit for small and mid-sized online stores.

Their website builder comes packed with tools and features such as email marketing, an SSL certificate, and options for mobile responsive templates – giving you everything you need to launch and grow your website in one convenient space.

However, Squarespace keeps its users on a short leash with a low level of customization and the inability to switch between templates without starting from scratch. Also, the lack of auto-save features makes it less convenient than some of its competitors.

Squarespace: FAQs

Does Squarespace have a free plan?

No, unlike some other website builders, Squarespace doesn’t have a free plan. However, it does offer a free 14-day trial. This offers you the opportunity to test out the platform to make sure it is the right one for you.

Does Squarespace charge a transaction fee on sales? 

It depends on the plan you pick.

The Business plan ($23/mo paid annually) is the cheapest plan which offers the full range of ecommerce functionality but charges a 3% transaction fee for physical products and services sold via the site. Both the Commerce plans (Basic ($27/mo paid annually) and Advanced ($49/mo paid annually)) charge a 0% transaction fee.

So, at just $4 extra a month, most ecommerce businesses would benefit from investing in the Commerce plan. But you will need to do the math to decide which one works best for you.

Can I get a discount on a Squarespace plan? 

Yes, we keep track of all the latest Squarespace voucher codes.

Is Squarespace better than Wix?

Well, it depends on what you’re looking for in a site builder. Wix offers more templates overall, but the ones you’ll get with Squarespace look better. Also, Wix has a forever-free edition, while with Squarespace you can make use of a 14-day free trial, and that’s about it.

Both site builders are easy to use, offer robust ecommerce features, and provide superb value for money. However, Wix is cheaper while Squarespace has more additional tools for growing your site.

Is Squarespace good for beginners?

Yes, Squarespace is one of the best site builders for beginners. Its intuitive, drag-and-drop editor is backed by simple-to-follow guides in case you get stuck. And if that doesn’t do the trick, you can rely on rather responsive customer support staff.

What are the downsides of using Squarespace?

The primary drawbacks of using Squarespace are the shortage of customization capabilities, the absence of auto-save features, and the lack of phone support. Also, there are cheaper options around and some of them offer a free edition of their site builders too.



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Dying Light: The Beast: Review
Game Updates

Dying Light: The Beast: Review

by admin


I’ve played a lot of zombie games, and while I often enjoy them a great deal, rarely do I find myself stopping to gawk at the scenery. But I’ve been doing that a lot in Techland’s latest open-world zombie RPG, Dying Light: The Beast. Setting a game like this in the Swiss Alps is fantastic. But even if this game was set in a much less pretty locale, I’d still be super into it as it feels like the culmination of a decade-plus of Techland making these kinds of RPG zombie adventures. Just don’t pay too close attention to the main story.

Dying Light: The Beast was originally envisioned and pitched as a big DLC expansion for 2022’s Dying Light 2. But it got bigger and bigger, and eventually Techland made the call to turn it into its own standalone adventure. The game, out now on Xbox, PS5, and PC, continues the story of Dying Light’s OG protagonist, Kyle Crane. A lot has happened to our gruff mercenary who is also surprisingly good at parkour.

Now, after over a decade of torture and experimentation, Crane is a half-human/half-zombie monster super-dude who can rip the undead limb from limb. And with this newfound power and some allies, Crane plans on taking down the bastard who was in charge of experimenting on him and others. And in the process, maybe saving some people stranded in the Swiss Alps in an area known as Castor Woods.

After spending about 7 hours with the new game, I can say the main plot of Dying Light: The Beast is easily the weakest part of the package. It’s very goofy and dumb and feels like it was created simply to explain Kyle’s new “Beast Mode” powers. It gets the job done, but it ain’t anything to write home about. Luckily, almost everything else in Dying Light: The Beast is much, much better.

Hoppin’ And Choppin’ All Day

As with the previous Dying Light games, The Beast is a first-person open-world zombie RPG focused on melee combat and parkour-inspired exploration and platforming. And it’s clear that Techland has built on its years of experience making this kind of game in this engine, as The Beast is just a joy to play. Running, sliding, jumping, climbing, and hopping around Castor Woods is a treat. It’s one of those games in which traversing from one quest marker to the next is such a joy that you don’t mind how mundane or silly the actual objective at the end is.

This new map, which is roughly the size of the OG Dying Light’s world, is filled with things to grab onto or mantle over or hop off of or slide through. It’s like a constant and very satisfying puzzle to figure out how to reach your next objective or avoid some massive crowd of zombies who want to kill you. It’s also just so damn pretty. The snowy mountains and fall-like vibes are almost cozy, until a big zombie monster attacks and ruins the vibes.

©Techland / Kotaku

The melee combat in Dying Light: The Beast isn’t much different than what can be found in Dying Light 2 or the original game, but I’m very happy about that. Those past games nailed first-person melee action, and The Beast just tweaks a few things to make the experience better. For example, weapons now visually deteriorate as you use them more, something that was lost in Dying Light 2. Meanwhile, swings can knock enemies back farther and feel more gnarly, too. Slamming a zombie’s head off with a sledgehammer never gets old.

I still find the crafting in Dying Light: The Beast, which returns from past games, to be a bit finicky and annoying. But it’s worth dealing with so you can craft a flaming machete that tears through undead as quickly and as disgustingly as I consume a bag of Taco Bell quesadillas.

I’m Shifting Into Beast Mode

The big new feature in Dying Light: The Beast is Crane’s ability to activate his latent monster powers and go full beast mode on zombies and human enemies alike. You earn beast juice—that’s what I call it—by attacking enemies and taking damage. Get enough, and Crane can turn into a hyper-fast, super-powerful, and extremely deadly killing machine, able to rip zombie arms off and punch clean through their chests. Going beast mode is always a blast in this game, especially when you use it to rip apart a big horde of zombies that were about to kill you.

As you play through the main campaign, you go toe-to-toe with special infected bosses that each offer unique fights. I fought one of these bosses that covered the area in fog and used other zombies to her advantage. These powerful foes provide Crane with Beast Points (stop laughing), which let you upgrade the Beast powers even further. I’m only about seven hours into the game, and I already feel like, in my Beast form, I could take on any threat. Well, maybe not the super zombies that come out at night.

Yes, once again, the deadliest enemies in the game return to chase Crane around as he tries to complete side quests and loot valuable locations after the sun has gone down. These encounters and moments in which the game forces Crane into dark, creepy caves and buildings are genuinely scary and turn Dying Light: The Beast into a pseudo-horror game, complete with some jump scares. Be careful at night.

Even though I haven’t finished the game, from what I’ve played so far, Dying Light: The Beast feels like the culmination of a decade-plus of Techland developing open-world zombie games. Its open world is gorgeous and so much fun to explore. Combat feels great, and moving around the world is better than ever. Techland has even brought back some smaller elements from Dying Light 1, like how enemies react to attacks, making The Beast feel like the studio’s strongest swing at this type of game. The storyline is silly, but I do enjoy going full wild mode and killing a dozen zombies, so I’ll ignore how often it’s made me roll my eyes.

Regardless, if the rest of Dying Light: The Beast is as good as what I’ve played so far, this will likely be on my Game of the Year list.



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Apple iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max review
Product Reviews

Apple iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max review

by admin


It’s a tricky year to review the iPhone Pro. It’s long been the go-to choice for anyone who wants an iPhone with the nicest screen, longest battery, and great cameras. But the display is no longer unique to the Pro, cameras have largely gotten “good enough” on most phones, and Apple has a new model, the Air, which might be even more compelling.

This is the first time the iPhone Pro feels like it’s truly targeted at creators — people who need the longest battery life and the best cameras to record video and photos. I’m not a creator, but I’ve always bought the Pro Max for its bigger, higher-refresh-rate screen as much as for its beefy battery. But now I don’t have to for the former, and neither do you, because, also for the first time, the regular iPhone 17 has the same bright, smooth, always-on screen as the Pro (and Air). And it starts at $799, compared to the $1,099 starting price of the iPhone 17 Pro and $1,199 for the iPhone 17 Pro Max.

The iPhone 17 is the new iPhone for most people, and the iPhone Air is the most exciting new iPhone, at least given its totally new ultra-thin design. So the iPhone 17 Pro is for people who really want more camera options, even longer battery life, slightly faster charging, and… orange.

$1099

The Good

  • Solid battery life
  • Brighter screen outdoors
  • Center Stage camera
  • Faster charging
  • Doesn’t get blazing hot
  • Orange

The Bad

  • What’s up with Siri?
  • Heavier than last year.

$1199

The Good

  • Solid battery life
  • Brighter screen outdoors
  • Center Stage camera
  • Faster charging
  • Doesn’t get blazing hot
  • Orange

The Bad

  • What’s up with Siri?
  • Heavier than last year.

The iPhone 17 Pro Max in orange really pops.

I like the new look of the iPhone 17 Pro. It has rounded edges again, which we haven’t seen since the iPhone 11 Pro. I prefer them to the sharp sides on the other models. And I dig the contrast between the lighter orange of the ceramic-and-glass square panel and the darker orange of the aluminum body. The color difference is also a bit of a guide. It screams “This is where the accessories go,” as if to tell the user, “Plop the MagSafe charger here.” Or “Stick the magnetic wallet on me.” (The wallet covers the rectangle perfectly on the iPhone 17 Pro.) The orange is bold, arguably more so than any other color Apple has launched on a Pro phone. I love it, but there are navy or white versions for folks who don’t. (Perhaps coincidentally, navy blue and orange are the colors of Auburn University, where Apple CEO Tim Cook went for undergrad.)

The camera bar (or “plateau,” as Apple calls it) replaces the small camera island on the earlier Pro models. It houses the three 48-megapixel cameras: main, wide-angle, and telephoto, the last of which is an upgrade from the 12-megapixel sensor in last year’s phones. The cameras sit above Apple’s new “Ceramic Shield” back, which is more resistant to cracks if you drop the phone. The front glass is also more scratch-resistant.

The Pro and Pro Max are also available in blue, but there isn’t a black option.

Quick anecdote: The iPhone 17 Pro Max fell out of my pocket and face down onto a rocky trail during a camping trip with my son and was fine. My 16 Pro Max probably would have been, too. And not to belabor the orange, but it was easy to spot on the ground. During a hike, I couldn’t see a big difference in the new max peak brightness compared to my iPhone 16 Pro Max. No huge surprise there; we’re quickly approaching the darker days of autumn, and that high brightness is reserved for the brightest of days. Regardless, most phone screens look OK in direct sunlight now, unless the brightness is being throttled from overheating while you’re on the beach.

I don’t like that the Pro Max is slightly heavier, at 8.2 ounces, right between the 8-ounce titanium iPhone 16 Pro Max and the 8.4-ounce steel iPhone 14 Pro Max. After touting titanium’s strength for two years, Apple switched to an aluminum body for the Pro, paired with the new vapor chamber, to help keep it cooler during processor-intensive tasks, like rendering videos or gaming.

That seems to have paid off. The phone was warm when I loaded up Destiny: Rising and when I played about 45 minutes of War Thunder, but didn’t feel sizzly right over the processor, an area that can get uncomfortably hot on my iPhone 16 Pro Max when I’m playing games or running any form of local AI.

Speaking of power-intensive tasks, let’s talk about the battery. Apple hollowed out a block of aluminum to fit the biggest battery possible inside the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max — promising up to 39 hours of battery life on the larger model versus 33 for the iPhone 16 Pro Max while watching video. Video playback time is a bizarre battery stat for a phone, but it’s one Apple sticks to.

On my first full day with the 17 Pro Max, the phone went a full day of regular use, not video playback, from 7:23AM to midnight, and still had 16 percent battery left. That was a light day of use, with only five hours and 15 minutes of screen-on time, though it may have still been syncing all of my saved data to the review unit.

The iPhone 17 Pro Max’s screen gets brighter than ever.

Battery life improved by the second full day. I took it off the charger at 7:32AM and hit 50 percent battery at 8:43PM, with five hours and 11 minutes of screen-on time. I’d mainly used it for my regular stuff: Slack, text messages, Safari, browsing Amazon, taking photos, and chatting with friends. I usually charge my iPhone 16 Pro Max around 8PM, but I still had half a battery left on the 17 Pro Max. It seems like a significant improvement so far. Your mileage is going to vary depending on what you do, and it’s too early to render an overall verdict.

The Pro Max has the biggest battery you’re going to get from any iPhone this year. There are also some upgrades to help it charge faster. The Pro models, like the regular, support 40-watt wired charging, which juices the battery to 50 percent in 20 minutes. And MagSafe charging is slightly faster, too. If you have a 30-watt charger, the Pro 17, like the regular iPhone 17, can juice with MagSafe up to 50 percent in 30 minutes versus 35 minutes on last year’s phone (the Air can do the same with a 20-watt charger, but has a smaller battery).

The iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max are aluminum again this year.

Both phones are a hair thicker but have larger batteries than last year.

The rear panel has a Ceramic Shield that’s more resistant to cracks. It’s that area around the Apple logo.

The cameras are the reason many people buy Apple’s iPhone Pros. They’re the phones that offer telephoto lenses, have better image stabilization, record sharper video, and include ProRes support. This year, Apple added several additional “Pro” features, like Genlock support, which lets videographers sync up timecodes across multiple cameras, and support for ProRes RAW recording — though you’ll need an external drive for that one.

Pro stuff aside, Center Stage is the best new camera feature, and it’s available on all iPhone 17 models. You’ve probably heard of it. On Macs and iPads, it allows the camera to follow your head — or your whole body — as you talk to someone on a video call. That’s on the iPhone now in the 18-megapixel selfie camera, where it goes one step further, thanks to a new square sensor. Center Stage can automatically detect if there are more people inside a frame and expand to a landscape photo to fit everyone in (you can also switch to landscape mode manually). That means you don’t have to juggle your phone and try to turn it sideways for a landscape photo; you can just hold it in portrait mode. It’s awesome, it works well, and it’s a unique solution to a problem I’d never really thought about.

Choose from .5x, 1x, 4x or 8x.

The front-facing cameras on all iPhone 17 models allow you to capture from the front and back cameras at the same time while recording, which is neat if you want to record a video of yourself showing somebody where you are, or how to do something, though it’s not a feature I see myself using.

Now to the main cameras. All three rear sensors are now 48 megapixels, including the telephoto. Apple has said this is like having eight different lenses. My colleague Antonio already took issue with the phrasing. On a purely surface level, though, I dig the options, and it’s one reason why I’d maybe choose this over the iPhone Air or iPhone 17, which don’t give you as many choices. The ultrawide, 1x, and 4x let you shoot in full 48-megapixel resolution with RAW or HEIC, while the others capture 12-megapixel pictures. Antonio did a better breakdown of how this works, but it’s a mixture of marketing, cropping, and computational photography.

The telephoto camera got a resolution bump, but it also downshifted from a 5x zoom on the 16 Pro models to 4x, making it a 100mm-equivalent lens, compared to roughly 120mm on the previous models. The 5x lens often felt slightly too long for head-and-shoulders portraits; 100mm feels just right. And with the higher-resolution sensor, there’s now a 2x crop zoom mode available to the telephoto lens for an 8x zoom (200mm equivalent). That’s just long enough to ensure that your photo of Alcatraz taken from the Marina Green in San Francisco doesn’t look like an unrecognizable speck, and the quality is more than enough for a social media post.

PreviousNext

1/2Taken with iPhone 17 Pro using 4x telephoto setting.

The shift to 48 megapixels also improves digital zoom quality; you can even get slightly more detailed 5x digital zoom photos from the 17 Pro compared to the optical 5x on the 16 Pro, since more pixels will generally do that if all else is equal. Altogether a smart update for this year’s telephoto.

That 2x crop zoom on the main camera remains a reliable option for environmental portraits and just a little extra reach when you need it. This year, Apple updated some of its processing on the 2x mode to bring out better detail in things like fabric; it’s subtle, but you can see the difference in a couple of side-by-side shots viewed at 100 percent. It’s not a big thing, but 2x images are just a little cleaner — kind of a nice bonus feature.

The 2x crop zoom on the iPhone 17 Pro (right) is just a little more detailed than on the 16 Pro (left). You can see the difference in the texture of the microfiber cloth, particularly in the shadows.

There’s one thing I still can’t really get off my mind, though, and that’s just how far behind Apple is in generative AI. Not long ago, when I talked to people about gadgets or tech, everyone wanted to know what was new with Apple. Now, everyone just wants to talk about AI and how I’m using it or how it’s going to replace or not replace jobs. And it’s being baked into every other piece of hardware on the market from every other big player, like Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon.

While Apple has launched some of the Apple Intelligence features it announced last year, we still don’t have a fully upgraded Siri that you can talk to like Google Gemini. And, sure, you can load the Gemini or ChatGPT apps, or make Siri pull from ChatGPT on the iPhone, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I recently bought a Pixel 10 Pro — it’s an excellent phone — and I love the way it integrates AI at a system level. Google’s Magic Cue, which runs on-device, can scan your inbox and calendar and prompt you to insert important dates and places right into your text messages when it sees you talking about a specific topic. Pixel Screenshots, which launched last year, can remind you of music or books you’ve saved when you open Spotify. And Gemini, which you can pull up by voice or by holding the power button, is just infinitely smarter and more useful than Siri.

I don’t think people are buying phones for these features yet, but the industry is moving awfully fast, and millions of people are using AI every day. It should be a highlight feature on the iPhone, front and center, but it is relegated to the background for things like translation and photos, and in other places where Google also uses it. It just feels like a giant void.

The iPhone 17 Pro Max and the iPhone Air. A tough choice.

The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max offer a lot of compelling features. Despite a redesign that might otherwise suggest a considerable upgrade, most of the changes are modest. The iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max are the best iPhones if you’re after the longest battery life, best cameras, and the most power from Apple’s 2025 lineup. They’re also the top options if you want orange. However, most people should consider the more affordable iPhone 17. It features the same screen and will do everything most people need. Or, check out the Air if, like me, you’re just curious what it’s like to use a very thin iPhone. Worst-case scenario: return it and get the Pro. In orange.

Agree to continue: Apple iPhone 17, 17 Pro, 17 Pro Max, and iPhone Air

Every smart device now requires you to agree to a series of terms and conditions before you can use it — contracts that no one actually reads. It’s impossible for us to read and analyze every single one of these agreements. But we’re going to start counting exactly how many times you have to hit “agree” to use devices when we review them since these are agreements most people don’t read and definitely can’t negotiate.

To use any of the iPhone 17 (and iPhone Air) models, you have to agree to:

  • The iOS terms and conditions, which you can have sent to you by email
  • Apple’s warranty agreement, which you can have sent to you by email

These agreements are nonnegotiable, and you can’t use the phone at all if you don’t agree to them.

The iPhone also prompts you to set up Apple Cash and Apple Pay at setup, which further means you have to agree to:

  • The Apple Cash agreement, which specifies that services are actually provided by Green Dot Bank and Apple Payments Inc. and further consists of the following agreements:
  • The Apple Cash terms and conditions
  • The electronic communications agreement
  • The Green Dot Bank privacy policy
  • Direct payments terms and conditions
  • Direct payments privacy notice
  • Apple Payments Inc. license

If you add a credit card to Apple Pay, you have to agree to:

  • The terms from your credit card provider, which do not have an option to be emailed

Final tally: two mandatory agreements, seven optional agreements for Apple Cash, and one optional agreement for Apple Pay.

Correction: The iPhone 14 Pro had a steel frame, not aluminum. The iPhone 17, not the Air, charges to 50% in 20 minutes.

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Midnight Murder Club key art.
Product Reviews

Midnight Murder Club review: bite-size murder madness

by admin



Why you can trust TechRadar


We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

Midnight Murder Club is a bite-sized first-person shooter with a unique premise that makes it worth trying out.

Set in a pitch black mansion, this PS5 exclusive (well, console exclusive) challenges you to track other players using only the light from a small torch and audio cues like muffled footsteps, the creaking sound of doors opening, and overheard conversations through proximity chat.

Review info

Platform reviewed: PS5
Available on: PC, PS5
Release date: August 14, 2025

When you have a full match of six players all using their microphones, the atmosphere is absolutely electric. There’s serious tension as you creep around, which always gives way to pure chaos once the shooting starts. If you’re looking for something to try on your next night of gaming with friends, then you can certainly do much worse for the modest $9.99 / £8.99 asking price. There’s even a ‘Guest Pass’ feature that lets your buddies join in completely for free, which is appreciated.

Unfortunately, the experience falls apart when you don’t have a dedicated group. Finding online matches is almost impossible thanks to a tiny pool of players just a few weeks after launch, and the few offline modes, while a decent starter course, won’t keep you entertained for long.

Lights out

(Image credit: Sony)

Midnight Murder Club offers a total of five player-versus-player (PvP) game modes, and while they follow the same general format, a few unique mechanics keep each one interesting.

The main mode is called Wildcards and features three teams of two players vying for the most kills. At the start of the match, every player selects a titular wildcard from a deck, each one boasting a unique effect. This ranges from simple bonuses like faster reload speeds and more effective flashlights to whackier options like a card that turns every gunshot into a loud jazz trumpet toot or another that gives everyone massive heads.

The chosen wildcards affect all players, leading to some enjoyably bonkers combinations. More cards are unlocked with each completed match, too, giving you at least a small reason to keep coming back for more.

Best bit

(Image credit: Sony)

Nothing quite compares to the satisfaction of nailing a foe using nothing but sound. Hearing footsteps and taking a risky shot only for it to instantly pay off is fantastic every time.

The other modes on offer are a standard free-for-all and team deathmatch, and more exciting ‘Thief in the Night’ and ‘Headhunters’, which see you clamoring to collect valuable skull fragments or destroying evil totems, respectively.

You start off each game armed with a basic revolver that has unlimited ammunition in most modes, but vending machines littered around the map give you access to more powerful machine guns and deadly traps like falling chandeliers. Getting gear from vendors doesn’t cost money, but rather produces a huge amount of light and noise – forcing you to weigh up whether the gear on offer is worth exposing your position.

Your flashlight presents much the same risk-versus-reward proposition. Levels are completely pitch black without it on, so it’s necessary to navigate unless you want to spend most of your time running into walls. Beams of light make it easy to track your location, though, and if you blindly shoot where one is coming from, more often than not, you’ll bag an easy elimination.

Dead silence

(Image credit: Sony)

Voice chat is a key part of Midnight Murder Club, and coordinating with your team is almost vital for success. It relies on a proximity chat system, where your DualSense Wireless Controller or PS5 headset is constantly broadcasting your voice to nearby players – whether friend or foe.

Turning off your flashlight and following the sound of other players’ voices for a sneak melee attack is a constant source of devilish satisfaction – particularly when you get to hear their panicked screams as you strike.

Although proximity chat can be a lot of fun, its inclusion does present some risks when you’re playing with strangers. I was particularly impressed to see an ‘Auto Scramble’ feature that automatically distorts the voices of anyone who’s not on your team.

You can still decipher general emotions, but individual words are impossible to make out – an innovative and practical addition that I’d love to see in other online games.

(Image credit: Sony)

Unfortunately, there are few opportunities to use this as the online matchmaking situation is dire. I’ve been trying to find matches every day for weeks, and it’s borderline impossible to find a full lobby.

To make matters worse, players frequently drop out of matches, and the peer-to-peer hosting means that massive lag spikes are common.

There are some single-player options here, like the ability to play Wildcards against bots or mow down computer-controlled enemies in the stages of the usually two-player Graveyard Shift mode, but they’re very limited, and you really need a large group of friends to make the most of it.

Although there is cross-platform support, players who try the game on PC will have to log in with a PlayStation account in addition to a Steam one. Given this is a PlayStation published game, this does make some sense, but it’s still incredibly annoying in a game that would otherwise be easy to pick up and play.

A few of the friends I had lined up to join me didn’t already have access to PlayStation accounts and weren’t willing to fork their email addresses over to Sony for what might be a single night of gaming, so they ended up wanting to play something else. When finding matches is already so difficult, this seems a bit like the developers shooting themselves in the foot.

All of this leaves Midnight Murder Club difficult to wholeheartedly recommend. It can be a fantastic time, provided you’re able to find a full lobby – which is almost impossible if you’re not playing with friends. It’s only really worth picking up if you have a group of five buddies eager to squad up.

Should I play Midnight Murder Club?

Play it if…

Don’t play it if…

Accessibility features

There are a few accessibility features in Midnight Murder Club.

You can customize the colors of in-game teams to make them easier to see and invert your camera controls. Most button inputs can also be tweaked on PS5, allowing you to rebind them as needed.

(Image credit: Sony)

How I reviewed Midnight Murder Club

I played Midnight Murder Club for almost four hours on PS5 using the DualSense Wireless Controller and a pair of Final VR500 gaming earbuds.

In that time, I played a variety of matches online and explored all of its single-player modes. For communication, I relied on the microphone built into the controller.

First reviewed August 2025

Midnight Murder Club: Price Comparison



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